


Approaching Fire

by Garlyle



Category: One Step From Eden (Video Game)
Genre: Calamity Spells, Character Death, Contest Entry, Dark World, Gen, Light horror themes, Pre-Canon, Worldbuilding, Written literally hours before deadline I had no time to revise, but whatever when has that ever stopped me, do not copy to other sites, fake scientific jargon, in the absence of canon I have continued to create my own, kinda hinted at a bit what I think is going on with it, minor connections to my previous OSFE work, science gone wrong, sometime I'll finish writing all my headcanon, sort of there's some stuff mentioned, this might slightly contradict some Actually Known And Established Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24105838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garlyle/pseuds/Garlyle
Summary: Has Science--Magic--gone too far?  As Saffron digs through the burning wreckage of the first successful Calamity spell, the answer may be yes.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Approaching Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the OSFE discord's Saffron competition, literally hours before the due date. I am not fully satisfied and may properly revise this in the future but so be it, I'd rather the tale be out there. I continue to envision OSFE's backstory as more dark than it probably was intended.

Everything was still on fire. It was impressive, honestly, that there was anything left to be on fire. A nagging doubt in the back of her head: would it ever stop burning?

"Saffron, we should get out of here." Hazel's voice is behind her, interrupted only by a choke on the smoke. "It's only a matter of time before someone shows up. We need to go."

"We can't." Saffron reaches for her deck, cycling a Kinetic Wave cardtridge into the wand on her arm. A flick of the wrist a moment later, and a burst of wind and water materializes, shoving aside wreckage and clearing a path through the smoldering frames of military tents. "Not until we find that spell."

"Saffron, there is no way that cardtridge survived that heat without at least deforming a bit. It's useless, even if it is intact." Hazel's protesting, and it's a sound logic. It's a probable truth. But...

"I know. But I can't take that risk." Saffron turns, taking a stern stance to her partner. "Hazel, if you want to go, get out of here. Tell the general -- I don't know, tell him we were attacked. Or something. Don't let it be known what we did. Stop the production. My programs, your prototypes, Chervil's blueprints - destroy them all. We can't let this happen again."

The heat between them is just enough to make it hard to read Hazel's expression.

"Okay. ... Okay." The hesitation is audible, over the crackling of the flame. "I'll see you again soon, right?"

"Of course."

Saffron turns to go, and doesn't look back.

* * *

_"Honestly, you spend more time reading those old history books, you'd think you belong with those bookworms instead of studying magical circuitry."_

_Her classmate is, as he so often is, not even looking up. Today's thousand-page tome is apparently_ The Storm of Atlantis _, and he's already halfway through it. It's amazing he has time to study._

_"It's really fascinating stuff, Saffron, if viewed through a modern lens." He's a nerdy sort, a few years older than her, definitely not the type she would've wanted to hang around if she'd ever been obsessed with popularity. That was not on her priorities, however. "All great civilizations fall. Aren't you curious to know why?"_

_"What's it matter, anyway?" Saffron shrugs. "They never got as far as us, so we've already beaten them all."_

_"They say all great civilizations end in a sudden disaster. Have we been able to stop ours yet?" This finally gets him to look up, setting the book face down and reaching behind himself to fix his ponytail._

_"That's all supersition. Anyway, at the rate cardtridge technology is progressing, Phalanx might be able to create something strong enough to do that soon."_

_"I think you and I know no wand could conjure enough magical power to pull that off."  
_

_"Even one of mine?"_

_"Even one of yours, genius. We're talking stopping a force of nature." She's not fully sure how they ended up talking about this, either, or how it's all related. "Start a storm for a few seconds? Sure, we can do that. Stop a monsoon? I'm pretty sure we're not going to be doing that, ever."_

_"Well, not if you're going to give up that easy." Saffron teases, showily pressing a palm to her own chest. "You need to get on my level, Chervil. Never accept something as impossible!"_

* * *

She is very fortunate that her clothes are made for this, literally. No sensible magical scientist would go without clothes that could deal with unexpected environmental hazards they might accidentally create. That said, this is still miles beyond what she's used to. The smoke at least has places to go, for one, but it still rolls thick enough to force her back to search for oxygen sometimes. It's not stopping her from sweating, either, and with her hair tucked into the back of her shirt for safety it's starting to feel all sorts of gross.

Maybe Hazel was in the right for getting out of here.

Second thoughts definitely strike Saffron when she rolls another kinetic wave through her wand, and she swears there're human bones that go scattering this time. She'd like to write it off as a trick of the heat, but then she stumbles over a loose helmet. Military grade.

"I guess we... really made a hell of a weapon, didn't we?" A nervous laugh. Observers who hadn't had the chance to get away. These people had no idea what was coming.

Then again, neither had Saffron, nor anyone else. If they'd expected it, there was no way they would've done the tests so close to anywhere anyone else existed. ...No, if they'd expected this result, they'd never have done this at all.

It was in those thoughts that Saffron tripped over twisted steel, falling in a heap. Even the dirt itself wants to sear her, forcing her to scramble back up to her feet even as bruises and cuts burned over.

"Should've finished that Tsunami spell. Would've been perfect for this."

As she holds her injuries, desperately willing them to cool down, her attempts to move forward are blocked by a sudden realisation. She's not so sure which way _was_ forward. Everything here is just a disaster, the visibility so low she's lost sight of any landmarks. But something does catch her eye, a single impossibility: a silhouette against the flames, one almost human. One that's moving, a little.

"Hey! Hey, is someone there?"

She is lucky she's quick on the draw, because what rushes at her next doesn't move like a human does.

* * *

_"I still haven't named it. I mean, it's just a theoretical, right? If it's never going to get cast, no point naming it."_

_The schematics on the wall are an absolute mess.  
_

_"The complexity of this spell's formulae would overwhelm any cardtridge's capacity only moments through its casting, Chervil." It's a quick observation she can make with no issue. "The manipulative complexity, the sheer manafication factor is... I mean, this is based on Soul Link, isn't it? You know that spell's only usable with military-grade modern wands, right?"_

_"Yeah, like I said. All theoretical." He sighs, rubbing the back of his head. "It won't work as an application design to R &D if there's zero chance of ever successfully completing it, right? Then again, if I applied a simpler subroutine, do you think I could still make something of this?"_

_"Hold up, we need to talk about this." Saffron gestures to the whole of the blueprint. "This is like..." technologically impossible, absolutely. And also a lot of the math and formulae are just wrong. But there's something there, and she's not even sure he's aware of it. If she refined this... "How did you even come up with this?"_

_"I was rereading The Dead Poet's City a few days ago, that's how. Oh, right, you never studied that one. It's about the old Nyos ruins. All the stories from the surrounding cities suggest the entire city died simultaneously in one night, and I was just, you know, thinking a lot about it."  
_

_"That's an urban legend, you know."_

_"Yeah, but what if it wasn't?"_

_He looks her in the eyes, for what almost feels like the first time, and there's something in there - something a bit wild, but also lively in a way she's never seen from him._

_"It hit me. We've done that, on a vastly smaller scale, with modern magic. It's basically just a mass application of the theory used behind Soul Link. It'd be like replicating the death of Nyos! And - don't look at me like I'm crazy here - why stop at that one? What if we could replicate others? The monsoon of Atlantis, the endless burning of Darvaza - heck, what if all of those weren't freak occurences? What if they were magical in nature? What if we just have to figure out how?"_

_"I'd say you've really lost yourself in the books this time."_

_She laughs it off, but she can't deny what she really thinks: A spell so powerful it shapes the face of history?_ _What if she could make that someday?_

* * *

Now she's sure she wants to get out of here. There are monsters here. How anything is even alive here is impossible enough, but weird horrid monstrosities? It's even worse that some of them are practically half machine. Half wand, half beast, manipulating mana in a way that reminds her of cardtridges. Some that she designed.

Is that a side effect of the spell? It has to be, right? It wasn't like monsters would've been prowling next to a military outpost beforehand, of course. So, if the impossible is ruled out, it just means what she's done came with unintended consequences. Hazel might have been right on this one - maybe she should have left while she still knew which way was back, run far away from this. Now there's no choice but forward, since she's lost the way back. Even if she got out of the camp, everything's still on fire and the smoke is still thick enough to obscure the sun.

The next silhouette she sees immediately has her raising her wand, ready for another fight. This is getting out of hand. Fighting over and over again, in this heat, is pushing her well beyond any boot camp simulation ever did. More than that, nobody's out there to bail her out if she collapses on this one.

This time, though, it doesn't attack. Cautiously, she approaches.

What she sees defies any explanation she can make.

The lab coat is recognizable even when turned black, along with the entirety of his body. He stands clenching his heart in pain, doubled over, captured in a moment, turned to obsidian as an unmoving statue. The expression is lost. Terror? Or is it peace? She can't even imagine how those last moments must have been.

"I guess it wasn't so impossible, was it, Chervil?"

* * *

_"Do you know what this means, Saffron? Spells written on this stuff, they work! It takes a while, but it's gotta be some kinda overload. There was a limit to it after all!"_

_Hazel is absolutely giddy, and so's Saffron, and both of them are completely ignoring the fact they're likely about to billed for repairs. A whole lot of repairs. The entire south wall of the lab is now spread over several dozen yards, what little of it remains at least._

_But she has never, ever seen a Sidewinder cast like that before, and neither has Hazel - and this is absolutely her specialty._

_"We could make the biggest turret ever, Saffron!"_

_"A turret? Hazel, don't you get it?" Saffron is smiling so wide her cheeks hurt. "Why stop at a turret? If you can burst out that much mana at once, you could probably engage a vastly more complicated program."_

_"So what you're saying is, and hear me out here," Hazel's expression turns very serious, "an entire fortress."_ _When Saffron nods, that turns into the biggest, brightest smile she's ever seen. It takes moments for the two to embrace in joy, jumping in circles around each other._

_At the time, they don't even notice the power to the building's been drained out entirely. All that matters to them is what they've stumbled upon: the impossibilities that suddenly look very possible._

* * *

"It's not here. Why isn't it here!?"

This is the worst case scenario. It's bad enough seeing her friend turned into an inhuman statue, a monument to their sins. But it's not there. The cardtridge is not there. The spell he designed. Amongst the shattered fragments of his overloaded wand, she can't find it. The heat doesn't even bother her so much anymore, not compared to the frustration. The hopelessness.

"Maybe... it's gone?" It strikes her, Hazel may have been right. And isn't that the best case scenario? That this spell can never be used again by another?

Footsteps catch her ear from behind, and she turned quickly to look at her surroundings for the first time in a while, and let out a gasp.

The ground had gone from ash to lit cinders, the smoke spiraling in unusual shapes, all had gone dark - had night fallen? The very mana in the air had gained an opressive weight. In the distance, through the choking fog, shapes undefinable stalked forward and about in all directions, faint glimpses of red scanning about in ways that couldn't be flames - only eyes of unseen nightmares.

She steps back, reaching for her deck nervously. A couple cards spill from her holster as she fumbles. Another step back, and she bumps into the statue behind her. The startled noise she makes is lost under the sound of magic casting. Her frostbolt bounces harmlessly off the obsidian statue she'd run into.

For a moment, relief washes over her, for the first time glad to see it was just the statue.

Then its head creaks, turning right around, staring at her with featureless obsidian eyes that glowed the same red as the flames around her.

_"R̛u҉n!͡"_

Saffron had never run so fast in her life before.

* * *

_"It'll be fine. Come on, the military base is behind us, we've got this wide open field ahead - what's the worst that can happen?" Hazel grinned, swinging around the new wand like it was a toy and not, in fact, worth several tens of thousands of sera._

_"You good to go? Sure you don't want to be the one casting it the first time?" Chervil looks to his partners, offering the cardtridge - printed on that strange, pitch black material using golden filaments, it looks as special as Saffron knows it is._

_"_ _Sure. Whatever happens, it's all of our doing, isn't it? Your imagination, Hazel's manufacturing, and my design."_

_"Right. Let's see what the future of magic's got for us."_

_Minutes later, they stood apart; Hazel and Saffron more than a safe distance away. The radio crackles to life._

_"All sensors functional?"_

_"All green!" Hazel called back._

_"Alright. Starting the first firing test of explosion..."_

_"No, you've gotta say it with more emphasis!" Hazel calls across. "I put an exclamation point on the name for a reason!"_

_"You're right. This is a historic moment! Starting the first test of Explosion!"_

_The change in the ambient mana is immediate. Wands draw upon ambient mana all the time - but this is on a completely new scale. It's like a vacuum, the wind stirring and rushing about, drawing the grass and even the trees before long to lean in its direction._

_"How's it going over there?"_

_"Good! This power--this is nuts! I can feel this, Saffron! Hah... haha! It's incredible! There's so much! I think it's almost fully charged!"_

_"Everything looks as expected. The overload loop should start shortly for casting."_

_"Yeah, any second now, we should see it."_

_Eyes turn skyward. The first magic circle fades into view as the spell starts, just as designed._

_No, not just as designed. It's huge. Absolutely massive._

_Then the shout comes across the radio. She can see him doubling over in the distance._

_"What's going on? Stop the spell!" Hazel's already shouting._

_"I just--this wand is--the spell's pulling--all wrong!" The radio signal's getting disrupted now. It's no wonder, either, she can hear the various meters and sensors breaking in response to the unprecedented level of mana that's suddenly starting to fill the air._

_"I can't!" That comes out, through the static._

_Then one last command comes through loud and clear, and they are not about to refuse.  
_

**_"Run!"_ **

* * *

"We screwed up big time, didn't we, Saffron?"

"More than big time. The biggest time."

It took a week for Saffron to recover from her exhaustion, her injuries, her burns. The doctor calls it a miracle. After all, she and Hazel are now the only survivors of a surprise attack by their neighboring country, the first strike in a war - and now the army's on its way to fight back. How that ended up the version of events, Saffron's not sure... but it doesn't end up with her or Hazel in jail.

"Please tell me you at least stopped them."

"I tried, Saffron really did. But you know how the general is."

Maybe they deserved to be in jail for this. Pursuing power for military ends? Of course it would end up like this. Did this put finally starting this war on their shoulders? No, Saffron tries to remind herself, this was inevitable - just the excuse to break the peace.

"They're already in printing. The general's calling them Calamity Spells. Says they'll be the key to shutting the enemy up, showing them what happens if they mess with us." Hazel tries for a rough impression of the general's husky voice, but breaks into a failing laugh towards the end. "Good thing there's only so much of that dark matter stuff, huh? So they can probably print only a handful."

She's really trying to smile.

"That's good, I guess."

And then the frustration and anger's too much for Hazel, all at once, and her eyes well with tears. "No, Saff, no it's not! This is our fault!" Saffron's pretty sure that in her injured state, in her hospital bed, she's not really supposed to be the one offering comfort - but she holds onto Hazel and pats her back, even as she can only stare at the wall past and try to think things through.

"So," Saffron muses to herself just as much to Hazel, "We'll just have to do something about it, won't we?"

* * *

"Huh, they really covered stuff up, didn't they?"

A merchant's dress is not really ideal for this opressive heat, but it's hardly going to stop her. A ruined military base? More like a ruined military _jackpot_. Though this statue's kinda weird. It's so lifelike, it could be worth a fortune... but there's no way she's going to be able to pull it out of here.

On the other hand, that weird cardtridge in its hand? She can tell even before she has picked it up that this one's special. She's not sure what it's made of. As she rolls it over in her hands, she admires the craftsmanship. It's shiny, too. Very nice. Must be a very, very rare spell.

"This was totally worth all the monsters. _You're_ gonna make me a nice million."


End file.
